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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 8/9/19

Mass ICE Raids in Mississippi After Workers Fought for Better Conditions Leave Kids Without Parents

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L. PATRICIA ICE: My understanding is that the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, which is also known as HSI, descended upon the state of Mississippi in seven different locations and arrested 680 immigrants who worked at these plants. And it was a devastating event for us. When I heard about it, I was shocked. And it was reminiscent of the raid that we had in 2008 at Howard Industries in Laurel, Mississippi, where 592 people were arrested. And I was involved in the response after that raid, and we are involved in the response after this current raid. So, in 2008, that was considered the largest work-site enforcement raid in the history of immigration. And I believe that this raid on Wednesday, that netted 680 arrests, is even it's even larger and is considered the largest work-site enforcement raid ever by immigration. This was

AMY GOODMAN: Immigration activists in Mississippi condemned the ICE raids during a news conference Thursday. This is Cliff Johnson, director of MacArthur Justice Center at University of Mississippi.

CLIFF JOHNSON: This is not the result of some outcry in Mississippi. Let the world hear this clearly. What happened yesterday is not the response to some demand on the part of Mississippians that these people be tied up and hauled off. Mississippi didn't ask for this. This doesn't come from the people. It doesn't even come from those people who, on the larger scale, might chant "build that wall," because in Mississippi we know each other. We do care about each other. We live next to one another. And this is not who we are.

AMY GOODMAN: L. Patricia Ice, I mean, this is astounding, what took place. The schools said they were not alerted. This even violated all of ICE protocols. They did not know what was taking place. Apparently, principals were calling bus drivers, saying if a child if no one is there to meet the child when you're dropping this child off, bring that child back. Mississippi protective services, child protective services, they were not alerted in advance. So all of these children were just left on their own, weeping and wailing?

L. PATRICIA ICE: Yes, they were, apparently. And this is a tactic that Department of Homeland Security and before that, INS has used over the years. And, of course, it was very tragic and horrendous that they chose the first day of school here in Mississippi to carry out these raids. And the U.S. attorney, Mike Hurst, in his press conference, claimed that the Department of Homeland Security had or some federal agency had notified the school districts in the locations where they carried out these raids. But apparently, that wasn't true.

AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to the mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Can you talk about your reaction to these raids and also what this means for Jackson? Who knows whether or not these raids are over? They were a complete surprise to many. Could they take place in Jackson? What are you doing in preparation?

MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA: Yes. So, what we witnessed, Amy, was an absence of humanity, to take people from their workplace, in their effort to just establish a quality of life for their families; to leave children stranded in the wilderness, in a sense, looking for a parental figure; and, you know, none of this being considered prior to these raids. You know, we've talked a lot about this in political circles. It's been a hotly debated thing among the Democrats and the Republicans. And this isn't an issue about, you know, what are your political affiliations. This is an issue about whether we have a soul. To leave children without their parents signals that this country is losing its soul, to round people up and to suggest that this was an attack on the corporations, yet we see no prosecution of those corporations. What we see are people who are left in terror. This is the state of affairs that we have, not only in Mississippi today, but now throughout this nation. And I think that we really have to evaluate that.

We are concerned about the impact of this to Jackson. I thought it was appropriate that we respond as a city, that we signal our solidarity with our immigrant population, let people know and have people step up to the plate in support. I called onto our faith institutions to open their doors to people in need. I think that that is the principal purpose for those established institutions, is to help those in need. And people have responded to that call.

We continue to be concerned about what the further tactics have been. No one reached out to my office prior to these raids. I have received correspondence now saying that they wanted to clear up any misnomers, but have yet to speak to anyone. I don't know what those misnomers are. When I see that 11-year-old girl crying for her father, suggesting that he's not a criminal, that he's just a person seeking opportunity, and seeing him in jail and wondering what she will do and where she will go, that suggests that there is something horribly wrong today.

AMY GOODMAN: And the schools, the Jackson schools, were any of the children of adults who were rounded up? And how are the schools preparing for something like this?

MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA: The schools were not notified. It's been a complete effort to organize on the fly. I spent the day with the superintendent, in fact, prior to these raids, walking to different schools, welcoming children for their first day of school. And as we know, because of the terror that is often inflicted on our immigrant population, many of those members of the population don't trust institutions like our schools. They're fearful of the police.

And so, what it sets the scene for is a more dangerous condition for everyone. When people feel that they don't have institutions of protection, they find means of protecting themselves. And that sets the stage for something that forfeits any credibility amongst leadership and credibility amongst institutions that should be aimed at protecting people, and leads to a condition of insecurity for everyone.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask L. Patricia Ice about Koch Foods, who owned all these processing plants, and what is going on here. You have this $3.75 million EEOC settlement, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settlement, that alleged that in these factories, that the workers were being sexually harassed, racially harassed, harassed based on their national origin. Clearly, in order to get a settlement like this, these workers had to organize. How is this ICE raid being seen? Is it that ICE is retaliating for the company against workers organizing? Of course, this puts the company in the spotlight, as well, for all of their abuse.

L. PATRICIA ICE: I don't know if ICE is retaliating because of this $3.5 million settlement or not, but what I see but it appears that it would be a retaliation. I have been into some of those chicken processing plants. I've been in the one in Morton, and I've been in one in Forest. And I have worked with the Latino community in Scott County for a very long time. I would venture to say at least 20 years. And I know that there was sexual harassment in the plants. I was not involved with that litigation, but I knew about it when it first came to light publicly that that was going on. So, it is possible that this was a retaliation by the Department of Homeland Security against the immigrant population who was working in those plants. But the conditions are terrible in the plants. It's cold in there. People have to wear jackets. They usually wear white jackets. In these plants, they have to kill the chickens. There's blood on the floor. There's water on the floor. And the people performing the different jobs are exposed excuse me are exposed to machinery. They have to cut the chickens. They package the chickens, etc. And it's not a very good environment.

AMY GOODMAN: I'm looking at --

L. PATRICIA ICE: Women are subject to yes, go ahead.

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